The pros and cons of using VolP

DON EDRINGTON - For the North County Times

I have written previously about using a computer as a substitute
telephone, wherein a headset is connected to your PC's speaker and
microphone jacks. If you have a PC friend with a similar setup, you
can have free long-distance voice conversations via IM services
offered by AIM, Yahoo and others. Check their Help files for
details.

Now, however, we can use our standard telephones via the
Internet -- not for free, but at cheaper rates than we pay for
land-line service. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is catching
on quickly, and was originally offered by companies such as Vonage
to compete with traditional phone service offered by the likes of
AT&T. Well, we just signed up with AT&T's new "CallVantage"
service and have learned a few pros and cons about VoIP.

You can choose between connecting your telephone wall outlets to
a special Internet connection or connecting your existing phones to
a PC with a special router. The former requires some rewiring of
your outside phone-line receptacle. We chose the latter, since two
cordless phones connected to a PC cover our small house with room
to spare.

However, we were surprised to learn that AT&T's resulting
voiceover Internet capabilities were less than ideal. Once we got
everything connected, following AT&T's instructions, we found
that phone calls had continuous voice dropouts that made having a
normal conversation impossible. AT&T's phone support people
were very gracious, but had no solution to this problem, telling us
only that the dropout problem would correct itself in the next one
to three days.

My response to this was, "Cancel this plan immediately and give
us back our previous phone service!" This demand quickly got me
through to a supervisor, who spent the next hour going over a
number of steps that could be taken to hasten the repair of this
problem.

The bottom line appears to be that analog telephones do not
immediately adapt themselves to digital PC/Internet protocols,
where voice transmission is concerned, and may take a day or two to
work properly. Ours are working better one day after the
installation -- but still not perfectly.

Other things to be aware of include the fact that any disruption
in your Internet service also stops your phone service. And since
your PC and peripherals need electricity, any power outage will
interrupt your phone service. A simple solution to this, however,
is to install a good UPS (uninterruptible power supply) between
your components and your AC outlet.

Having a UPS (aka battery backup) in place is good, even if you
aren't using VoIP, since it protects your PC from power spikes and
outages. A simple spike protector may help with the former, but
does nothing for the latter, which can zap a hard drive if it is in
use when the power goes out.

If you have any experience with VoIP that you would like toshare with readers of this column, please write to me at
DonEdrington@netscape.net
.

More tips can be found at www.pcdon.com, and calls are welcome
at (949) 646-8615.